Immigration inspectors have disclosed for the first time the existence of a backlog of more than 150,000 cases involving people who have been refused permission to stay in Britain but whose whereabouts are unknown to the authorities.

The chief inspector of immigration, John Vine, said he discovered the existence of the UK Border Agency’s national “migration refusal pool” during his first inspection of a local immigration team.

The only guidance staff were given for dealing with cases in this 150,000-strong group was that the total size of the pool should not be allowed to increase.

Vine said his greatest concern during his inspection of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight immigration team was over the “150,000-plus cases nationally that are sitting in a migration refusal pool”.

He added: “I could not find any clear strategy for dealing with these cases, either in determining the proportion of this growing number of people who were still in the UK illegally and who should be removed, or in setting out clear performance targets to manage and reduce these cases in an organised manner.”

In his inspection report published on Thursday, the chief inspector says staff reported it being impossible to know whether the 150,000 were still in Britain or had left voluntarily.

Officials at the UK Border Agency admitted that about 40% of those in the “refusal pool” had not even been formally served with the documents informing them that they had to leave Britain within 28 days.

The lack of action over people refused permission to stay is underlined by a separate finding in his inspection report which shows that while absconders who had disappeared off the UKBA’s radar were not ignored, “it was clear that they were not a high priority for the local immigration team”.

The 150,000 cases in this previously undisclosed backlog are a separate group from those who entered Britain illegally or who overstayed their visas, or who are failed asylum seekers.

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the inspector’s “damning conclusion” found that the government was giving a very low priority to finding and removing people refused permission to stay in Britain. “Out of 150,000 people refused leave to remain, the government seems not to know or care how many are still here,” she said.

The immigration minister, Damian Green, responded to the report by saying the UKBA had now started working through “a group of potential overstayers to identify those who had not left”.

That operation included checking against passenger records held in the e-borders database, which covers details of all flights outside Europe to and from Britain.

“This summer the UKBA launched a UK-wide operation to remove overstayers and we have already seen 1,800 removals since the campaign started,” Green said.

“We are also working closely with other government departments to create a hostile environment which makes it much harder for migrants to live in the UK illegally.”

Vine says in his report that the “migration refusal pool” concerns cases where applications, for instance from students, have been made in the UK to remain and have been refused. “Applicants are given notice that they must leave the UK within 28 days.”

The cases are officially described as work in progress, but the inspectors say that this list includes people who have failed to leave Britain, those who have applied to stay under another category, those who have outstanding legal appeals, and those who have already left the country but by a route not covered by the e-borders computer database. Vine reveals that local immigration staff were confused about how many cases in the pool they were supposed to be chasing.

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight team estimated the number they were responsible for was between 400 and 600; they were unsure as to how many might have left already. Official UKBA figures showed there were 1,893 such cases in their area in December, said Vine.

Detailed UKBA figures disclosed in the report show that the size of the pool increased steadily from 153,821 on 17 October 2011, to 159,313 on 12 December.

A detailed analysis of 44 case files by the inspectors found that fewer than half had actually left Britain.

The chairman of the home affairs select committee said that senior UKBA officials should be banned from getting bonuses until the organisation makes serious improvements.

Labour’s Keith Vaz said the airport queues and the row over the relaxation of immigration controls showed the UKBA was not “worthy” of paying bonuses to senior staff. Last year the UKBA paid a total of £3.5m in bonuses to senior staff.

David Cameron told the liaison committee of senior MPs: “If agencies don’t perform, just like if companies don’t perform, there shouldn’t be bonuses.”

Mr Vaz seized on the comment to demand that no senior UKBA officials were given a bonus payment this year.

During a Commons debate Vaz said: “The £3.5m that was given last year to senior officials of the UKBA, in defiance of the recommendation of the select committee and, in my view, the views of the prime minister and senior ministers who have no control over these bonuses, was wrong.”

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JackKrak

If anyone from the UK Border Agency is reading this, I can help you out because I know where all these 150,000 “missing” people are. A few weeks ago, I came into London by bus from Stanstead down Commercial Road and I’m sure I saw every single one of them there.

WhitesRdumb

“Immigration inspectors have disclosed for the first time the existence
of a backlog of more than 150,000 cases involving people who have been
refused permission to stay in Britain but whose whereabouts are unknown
to the authorities.”

Look in your prisons, or maybe you gave them all visas to come to the US or other parts of Europe.

loyalwhitebriton

It’s a bit rich for Yvette Cooper to pipe up now. It was during the previous Labour administration that failed asylum seekers (and immigrants whose visas had expired) were told to “make their own way” to the nearest detention centre! (this was widely reported in the better newspapers)
Guess what? They didn’t! They simply disappeared into the woodwork.
Labours rank hypocricy is matched only by their cynical opportunism!

Yeah..imagine that! Maybe they should check their welfare roster. I’m sure they will find many, if not all of the 150,000 “missing” guests.

loyalwhitebriton

I agree. If the government checked the welfare books many of the ‘missing guests’ could be located. They won’t do this, of course, it’s far too simple a solution.
Also, many of the illegals work for “cash in hand”, with no National-Insurance number or tax records, making them harder to track down. The ideal solution, of course, would have been to physically march these illegals to the detention centre, then physically put them on the next plane back home. Again, far too simple a solution. Politicians (being the miserable creatures that they are) would rather prefer the cosmetic solutions proffered by an inefficient, time-served, bureaucracy (like the UKBA).

You and I both know why they don’t check the welfare books…because they might actually find the “missing “guests and be forced to do something with them. I suspect doing something with them does not include deportation.

loyalwhitebriton

See my reply below. I went to ‘Add comment’ instead of ‘reply’. It’s the wine.

Why do I get the feeling this “list” got lost somewhere along the way. If the UK is anything like this country, then these 150,000 “missing” guests will have absolutely nothing to worry about. They do not care where you are and there will be no knocks at your door. Your secret is safe so long as multiculturalism and diversity rule the day….

Global Minority

If the government wanted to stop illegal invaders and deport the ones already in our countries they could. They don’t care until maybe one of their family members is gunned down by a diversity. Tyrants never give up their power willingly. Sad but true. And until White people wake up and realize war has been waged upon them and their children they will continue to be iped off the face of the map!

loyalwhitebriton

Deportation isn’t in their lexicon, not now, nor in the future. David Cameron has publically referred to himself as the “Heir to Blair”. And he is. Tony Blair (who is an expletive not allowed by the moderator) let them in, and David Cameron (also an expletive)will allow them to stay, despite all of the rhetoric coming from our laughably attrocious coalition government.
For myself, I’m sitting here, drinking wine (at 1.40 am – not at work tomorrow) and getting angry at my government, as usual. No change there, then.

Texan1st

Whether in Britain, the US, or ANY White homeland, the first step towards our demise was allowing anti-Whites to infiltrate our educational systems and brainwashing their captive audiences. It’s been all downhill ever since.

ageofknowledge

Missing…. lol. Let me tell you what they’re up to: gangs, drugs, working under the table, and producing welfare babies.

The__Bobster

This is why I want to kick my TV screen in when Republicans mention guest worker programs as the answer to the squat monster invader problem. Once these people get inside your country, they disappear, only to reappear once they’ve popped out a few anchor babies.